Challenges and Successes in Ending Violence Against Women in El Salvador

Challenges and Successes in Ending Violence Against Women in El Salvador

El Salvador has the highest rate of homicides of women in the world—along with the highest rate of homicides overall, according to the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime—and USAID and other donors’ successful approaches to addressing gender violence in El Salvador provide valuable lessons for reducing this problem globally.

More than 225 individuals from academia, government, and the private sector participated in this year’s conference. The conference’s theme was “Building Solutions, Harmony, and the Greater Good,” with USAID and other donors’ gender work in El Salvador a perfect fit.

Dr. Thompson presented a paper on “Cultural Change Leadership: Visioning a New Social Imaginary in El Salvador to Prevent Violence Against Women.” She addressed how in El Salvador women leaders of nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), women leaders in government, women community leaders, university students, and male leaders of new masculinities NGOs work together to change a highly paternalistic system steeped in a long history of machismo and violence (several massacres took place throughout El Salvador’s history as well as a 12 year-long civil war).

Dr. Thompson noted many women’s NGOs work to end violence, but in some locations women are afraid to access services because gangs monitor the services and threaten women who use them. She also addressed the relationship between machismo and gang violence, how programs in schools and communities can prevent youth from joining gangs and gang violence, and the measurable impact of several donor-funded projects in El Salvador working to strengthen the justice sector and reduce impunity.